The orthodontic treatment of patients has as its fundamental objective the repositioning or realignment of the teeth of a patient in the patient's mouth to positions where they function optimally together and occupy relative locations and orientations that define opposed and cooperating smooth archforms. A common technique for achieving this objective is to position orthodontic brackets on a patient's teeth such that archwire slots in the brackets will align when the teeth are in their corrected positions, and to place an elastic archwire in the slots that urges the teeth toward their corrected positions as the wire tends to straighten. In an ideal situation, a perfectly positioned, perfectly designed appliance used in this manner will theoretically move the teeth to their intended corrected positions without intervention in the form of “wire bending” by the orthodontist. With most appliances made to apply to standard statistically average dental anatomy, the ideal is seldom, if ever, realized.
The patents identified above describe the design, manufacture and use of custom orthodontic appliances designed and built with the aid of a computer. With such automated appliance design and manufacturing systems, the collection of data of the shapes of the patient's dental anatomy, the processing of the collected data to create an appliance in accordance with the treatment prescribed by an orthodontist, the precise and economic manufacture of the custom orthodontic appliance, and the efficient and accurate placement of the appliance on a patient's teeth are important.
Accordingly, there is a great need in orthodontics for a practical, reliable and efficient custom appliance automated design and manufacturing system, and method of providing custom appliances and treating patients therewith.